During my travel to Silicon Valley, California, I got a chance to meet Rick Nguyen. He is co-founder of Spot Trender, a technology startup successfully disrupting a multi billion-dollar advertising testing industry in the United States. As a UC Berkeley alumnus and veteran startup founder, Rick Nguyen has been invited to speak about high-tech management, product development, and entrepreneurship at Microsoft, San Jose State University, and coding schools over across the United States. Vietnam Journal of Science (VJS) recently had an interview with him (http://www.vjsonline.org/science-technology-pulse/1463177507 ). This time, our talk concentrated on high-tech entrepreneurship.

Q : In your opinion, what are needed for a successful entrepreneur in the US, especially for an immigrant from Vietnam like yourself?
A : There are three essential things that I learned during my journey that I wished I had known before starting my company.
First, integration. Go outward to interact with different cultures instead of isolating yourself within your own ethnic group. American companies have tremendous advantage when they need to expand worldwide because they have access to other cultures right here at home: Indians, Chinese, Hispanics, Europeans etc. Access to other cultures and point-of-views allow companies to have deeper understanding of how different markets would react to their products or services. “Friends do deals with friends”, people do business with those they like and trust. Some cultural norms we have can alienate us from potential clients and partners. For instance, fish sauce, which is a delicious stable in many Vietnamese dishes, doesn’t smell good to Americans. While it is a huge part of our culture, eating fish sauce while having a non-Vietnamese guest over can break rapport.
Additionally, I’d like to emphasize that you need to be good at English. Invest in pronunciation coach and surround yourself daily with native English speakers to force yourself to use the language. This is extremely important because without the ability to express yourself clearly, people perceive you as less intelligent, less capable, less successful.
Sun Tzu said in the art of war: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” When you know not only yourself and your culture, but also other people’s way of life and thinking, you have a much better chance of success.

Second, you need to be willing to work ten times harder than the natives. Startup is a constant struggle for survival. You’ll have to compete with people who were born in America, with access to existing network, language, and capital. You have to be willing to work ten times harder and smarter than your competition. For example, let’s talk about networking. People who were born in the U.S. already have a much bigger network here than you. That means you have to go out much more often and networking in a much smarter fashion. By networking smarter I meant you’ll have to be much more focused in your networking, i.e. meet the right people. Network with people who have what you want to have, who achieved what you wanted to do. To have high-quality people wanting to be your friend and work with you, you have to work hard to be your BEST self: Imagine your ideal self, ask yourself what that person would do, then do it. In Vietnam we have a saying: “If you’re close to ink, you’ll be black. If you’re close to lamb, you’ll be bright.”
Third, persuasiveness. Practice persuasion, or “pitching”. As an entrepreneur, you’ll be pitching 24/7 – whether to get investors, persuade a star employee to join your company, or potential clients to try your product. Join a public speaking club, like Toastmasters International. Practice your presentation, negotiation, motivation, and persuasive skills.

Q : According to you, what are the gain and the loss for an entrepreneur ?
A : In my opinion, you gain three things. First, you have complete control of your destiny, the freedom to do what you wan to do. Running a startup opens up a world of wonders and possibilities. With high-tech startup, you can make massive impact on the world. Second, wealth (smiling). Third, you’ll be part of the exclusive CEO club: People who are relatively smart, motivated, successful. You’ll be able to relate to them because you’ve gone through hell and back!
But be warned: Sacrifices need to be made. The most noticeable aspect is financial stability. When you start out, you won’t be able to afford that vacation or concert ticket you want. You’re lucky if you can pay for necessities like food and shelter. I slept on my mom’s couch for 2 years when first started my company. Second, you won’t have time – so forget about working 9 to 5 and having nice weekend. Finally, it will be hard on your relationships –when your friends go out to the bar Saturday night you’ll be busy working on your company. Your startup is like a new-born child. It will cry, poop, and need to be fed at 3 AM.
Q : What is your recommendation to first-time founders?
A : Starting a company is tough a way of life, so you’ll need to deliberate very carefully before starting. Build a financial cushion to yourself at least 5 years to work on your startup, as most startup ideas take a while to become reality. You don’t have to quit your job right away, make sure you do your homework to see if your idea is useful, and if people are willing to pay/use it before massively focusing on it.

To the successful startup entrepreneurs: When you’re on top, send the elevator downstairs. Help the next generation of leaders through investments, mentorship, and opportunities. Not only you’ll gain tremendously powerful ally in the future, you’re making Vietnam a better place.

“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” -Albert Einstein

If you follow politics, you’ll notice an alarming trend: too many folks talk about getting a tuition-free education, but way too few focus on the idea of a quality education. A “free” education means nothing if what you learned was worthless and you still can’t find a job after college. How should we define quality? First, let’s look at some trends where the world is going:

Increasing prevalence of automation: If you live in the heart of the Silicon Valley, you see automation everywhere – like from consumer-focused services such as Google’s (aka Alphabet) self-driving car, Roomba vacuum cleaning robots, to enterprise-focused services like Marketo automated marketing, Spot Trender automated ad-testing, and so on. Even fast-food is being automated by startup like Eatsa, which provides an “automated fast-food experience”. In fact, according to an Oxford study, close to 50% of existing jobs in America is “at risk of automation”.

Increasing foreign competition: With tremendous improvements in communication technologies and English language adaptation, Americans have to compete with cheaper workers outside of the United States. Many foreign workers can work from their virtual office and do the same job as Americans for much lower wage.

Accelerated technical advancements: The world is changing at tremendous pace. Specific engineering skills can become obsolete in 2 years, sometimes even much shorter.

Based on these trends, let’s think about what would make one a valuable and productive member in society. The key is adaptability. What kind of college education would make one highly adaptable? I was fortunate enough that when I went to college, UC Berkeley allows student to design their own majors (Interdisciplinary Science Field – ISF). This is what I did:

Historical: Winston Churchill famously said “the farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Having a fundamental in History allows you to compare and contrast what happened to today’s society, to see and predict trends. That’s why so many investment bankers are History majors. Classes I took at Cal: Roman History, Modern Chinese History.

Scientific: Science trains the mind to reason. Scientific thinking allows you to look at facts instead of relying on your gut and biases before acting. For my own scientific education, I took Molecular Cell Biology, Physics, Calculus, and Probability Statistic for Engineers (one of the hardest math class I’ve taken – those Cal engineering students are wickedly smart!). To quote Prof. Richard Muller from Cal: “The key to learning math is recognizing that you are learning approaches, not facts, and think of those approaches as tools towards addressing new ideas. The skill to ‘problem solve’ is one of the most highly valued skills in all careers.”

Also, stop making excuses and learn how to code! I joined a Coding Dojo – a coding boot camp, and learned to code before starting my tech company. One of the best time investments in my life.

Physical : Pick a sport and work out 3-5 days a week. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. Study by University of British Columbia showed that regular aerobic exercises significantly improved left, right and total hippocampal volumes (p≤0.03). Exercise makes you smarter and being healthy allows you to work harder. I currently do Krav Maga (martial art) 3 times a week as well as a combination of weigh-lifting and cross-fit exercises.

Philosophy/moral: First, the point of moral education and philosophy is not having someone tell you – in black and white term, what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. It’s for you to be able to think for yourself and determine what’s right or wrong. We’re facing an ever evolving world such that things that were perfectly OK ten years ago now frown upon. Even more, if you plan to be an innovator, you’ll have to deal with ethical issues, such as “why self-driving cars must be programmed to kill.” Second, Philosophical education is the best defense against stupidity. After learning how to reason, you’ll notice way too many people post bogus, outright stupid arguments on Facebook or social media about important issues. Inoculate yourself against stupidity and ignorance!

Leadership: The best way to learn leadership is to lead. Join a group and start leading. At Cal, I was in Army Reserve Officer Training Corp (yes, I got to take a bunch of advanced military science classes and loved it!), President of a social fraternity, and President of a Toastmasters club.